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According to some accounts, it was Napa-based Flora Springs that way back in December 2017 first launched the campaign. After all, it’s just not fair that red wine gets its own emoji in the database over at Unicode, the shepherds of that industry standard for “consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world’s writing systems,” according to Wikipedia, while white wine is left out in the digital and not-even-room-temperature cold. Flora Springs wanted to right that wrong, Forbes reported last fall.

“Flora Springs’ campaign for a white wine emoji began in December 2017 when our social media ambassadors became frustrated that there was no emoji for wine, other than a white wine emoji,” Nat Komes, the winery’s general manager, told the magazine. It, of course, had a vested interest in pushing for such an emoji: Flora Springs produces chardonnay and sauvignon blanc.

As Forbes explained, the winery was promoting holiday-themed chardonnay and, Komes said, “it was annoying to have to use the red wine emoji in connection with a white wine.” As a result, the winery, “decided to launch a campaign directed to our social media followers, using the hashtag ‘#WhiteWineEmoji’ and linking it to Flora Springs.” In an all-out effort to promote the new icon, the winery has also created its own white wine emoji graphic, distributed white wine emoji buttons and implemented a white wine emoji page on its website. There is even, according to Komes, a white wine emoji-themed tasting at the winery’s St. Helena-based tasting room in Napa.

And Flora Springs wasn’t the only brave viticultural apostle out there pushing for emoji parity among wines of all color. In fact, by 2018, a whole cast of winemakers had joined the #whitewineemoji campaign, including Sonoma County’s La Crema and Matanzas Creek Winery and dozens of others.

If I’m tweeting about Riesling Gruner or Lugana I can’t use the red wine emoji… #whitewineemoji

Writing about the trend as it was heating up this past summer was the online magazine The Drinks Business, which included an article focused on Kendall-Jackson’s push for equal rights when it comes to wine-varietal emojis:

Kendall-Jackson, the Sonoma Valley winery known for its white wines, sent a proposal to Unicode, outlining why a white-wine emoji is needed, said the story, quoting this impassioned plea from K-J:

“The existing wine glass emoji, depicted as a glass of red wine, does not properly represent one of the most popular and widely consumed adult beverages – white wine. Today, wine is ubiquitous worldwide and evokes strong personal and emotional connections and opinions. In its simplest form, it boils down to ‘are you a red or a white wine drinker? We live in an era where the rise of post-truth has left people demanding clear communication and the desire to represent their identity. White wine is not just a popular category comprised of white grape varieties; it is a large part of people’s daily lives. This all-important beverage with ancient beginnings should be properly illustrated in our modern, international language of emoji.”

Here’s an excerpt of the proposal that Lauren Svoboda with Kendall-Jackson sent to Unicode in May:

“ABSTRACT This is the proposal for inclusion of a White Wine Glass Emoji ZWJ Sequence (U+1F377 + ZWJ + U+25FB) for RGI in Unicode Emoji Version 12 without hesitation for the following reasons: • The existing wine glass emoji, depicted as a glass of red wine, does not properly represent one of the most popular and widely consumed adult beverages — white wine.”

The document is long, and you can read it here, but apparently the application is still pending.

As Kendall-Jackson’s marketing team put it on their website, as it set up a white wine emoji website, “What’s missing isn’t the world’s passion for white wine. It’s simply the world’s symbol for white wine. … Show your support for the world’s first White Wine Emoji by sharing the wanted poster and using #WhiteWineEmoji – because the best things in the world go beyond words!”

In its article this past fall, Forbes captured the intense passion that many vintners feel when it comes to equal rights for white wine:

“Many wine producers, in various regions, said they would welcome the ability to use a white wine emoji as a promotional and communication tool. ‘It would be awesome to use a white wine emoji, particularly when referencing one of my white wines or white grapes,’ shared Jason Fox, owner and winemaker at Lagana Cellars in Walla Walla, Washington. He added that thus far, the red wine emoji seemed to have elicited a good response.

“In Walla Walla, assistant winemaker Amy Alvarez-Wampfler — who is a chardonnay fan and producer — said that she would ‘love to see a white wine emoji and would enjoy using it.’ She adds that ‘people tend to engage in [social media] conversations more when emojis are used.’

“‘Part of the history behind the white wine emoji is that it was submitted to the Unicode [the coding that makes all the emojis do their magic] in May 2018,’ said Rachel Neff, a senior account executive at the Portland, Oregon-based public relations firm of Lane Finn Partners, that works with a number of wineries and restaurants. ‘Although this white wine emoji isn’t official yet, it’s in the process of consideration. As with any market need, a white wine emoji was the counterpoint to the ambitious glass of red wine, which was added to the Unicode in 2015.'”

Meanwhile, the white-wine world waits for justice. White wine does not yet appear on Unicode’s official emoji roster. A martini glass? Yes. Red wine? Mais oui! But white wine? Sorry, not on the menu.

Patrick May is an award-winning writer for the Bay Area News Group working with the business desk as a general assignment reporter. Over his 34 years in daily newspapers, he has traveled overseas and around the nation, covering wars and natural disasters, writing both breaking news stories and human-interest features. He has won numerous national and regional writing awards during his years as a reporter, 17 of them spent at the Miami Herald.

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